Wednesday, August 26, 2009

A True Description of the Prophet Mohamed's Family (SAWS)

The term Sharif (nobleman) or Sayyid is used to describe a descendant of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) through his daughter Fatima (RAA). They are descendants of Al Hasan and Al Husein- the two sons of Ali ibn Abi Talib (RAA) and Fatima the daughter of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS). The Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) and Ali ibn Abi Talib (RAA) are from the Bani Hashim branch of the tribe of Quraish. They are the noblest of the Arabs. The Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) and Ali ibn Abi Talib (RAA) were first cousins. Ali’s father, Abi Talib, was the brother of the Prophet’s (SAWS) father. Once it has been established that the Bani Hashim were a black-skinned people, there should be no need to prove that the pure Arabs of the past were, in general, a black-skinned people.

In discussing the appearance of the Sharifs, I believe that it is appropriate for me to begin with the father of the Sharifs- Ali ibn Abi Talib (RAA). In his book Tarikh Al-Khulafaa (The History of the Caliphs), Imam Al-Suyuti described Ali ibn Abi Talib as follows:

Ali was a heavyset, bald, hairy man of average height which leaned toward shortness. He had a large stomach and a large beard which filled all that was between his shoulders. His beard was white as if it was cotton and he was a black-skinned man.

There are certain names that we usually hear when the Sharifs or Sayyids - the family of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) are mentioned. We have all probably heard of Ali Zein Al-Abidin the son of ِAl-Husein the son of Ali the son of Abu Talib. Though his mother was Persian, he is described as dark-skinned. Where did he get his dark complexion from? From his father's side of the family, of course. This Ali Zein Al-Abidin the son of ِAl-Husein the son of Ali the son of Abu Talib married Fatima the daughter of Al-Hasan the son of Ali the son of Abi Talib.

Mohamed Al-Baqir- another name we hear when there is mention of the Sharifs, the family of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) - was the eldest son of Ali Zein Al-Abidin and Fatima the daughter of Al-Hasan. He was nicknamed "He Who Resembles" because he looked so much like the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS). He was described as dark-skinned, kinky-haired, and of average height. Mohamed Al-Baqir married Umm Farwa, the great granddaughter of Abu Bakr Al-Saddiq and they had Jaafar Al-Saadiq. Jaafar Al-Saadiq is another name frequently heard when speaking of the family of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS). He was described as black-skinned, kinky-haired, and average height.

Jaafar Al-Saadiq had a Berber slave-girl named Humaida and through her he had his son Musa Al-Kadhim - another well-known member of the family of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) whom many Sharifs claim descent from. Musa Al-Kadhim was described as very black-skinned.

Musa Al-Kadhim's son Ali Al-Rida is another well-known member of the family of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) whom many Sharifs claim descent from. He, too, was described as black-skinned. He was once standing in a bathhouse when a soldier entered and pushed him to the side and said, "Pour water on my head oh black one!" Ali Al-Rida began to pour water for the soldier and then someone who knew who Ali Al-Rida was entered the bathhouse and when he saw what was happening he shouted, "Oh soldier! Woe to you! Do you dare have the son of the daughter of the Messenger of Allah (SAWS) serve you?!" The soldier quickly began to kiss the feet of Ali Al-Rida and said, "Why didn't you disobey me when I ordered you?!"

Ali Al-Rida had a son named Mohamed Al-Jawaad also known as Mohamed Al-Taqi. Mohamed Al-Jawaad was also described as very black-skinned. Mohamed Al-Jawaad or Al-Taqi had a son named Ali Al-Hadi. Ali Al-Hadi, too, was described as dark-skinned.

The chart below was taken from this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayyid. Take a look at the link and the chart to get an even better idea of how the dark-skinned members of the Prophet Mohamed's family that I have just mentioned are the noble ancestors of those called Sharifs or Sayyids today.

You have all probably heard of Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia. He is Mohamed the son of Abdella the Pure-Blooded the son of Al-Hasan the son of Al-Hasan the son of Ali the son of Abi Talib. Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia was nicknamed the Pure-Blooded of Quraish because he was so unmixed. His father Abdella was also nicknamed the Pure-Blooded. Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia was from the Bani Hashim clan of Quraish from both his mother and his father. Remember that Bani Hashim is the clan of Quraish that the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) and Ali (RAA) are from. Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia was described as very black-skinned and huge. He had a son named Hasan. His son Hasan was nicknamed The Father of the Tar because he was so black-skinned. This is the description of the pure-blooded descendants of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS). Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia wrote a letter to the Abbasid ruler complaining to him that he had more right to be the ruler because he was so closely related to the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS). Amongst the things he said in his letter to the Abbasid ruler was, "We are in the right...Our father Ali was the Imam (leader). How did you inherit the rule which belongs to the children of Ali?! You know that no one who seeks this position (ruler) has a purer genealogy than I do or is more highborn than I am...You know that no one has as close relations or relations to anyone better than he whom I am very closely related to (He means the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS)). I am from the best of Banu Hashim in genealogy and the noblest of them both paternally and maternally. No non-Arab blood runs through my veins and I am not related to the slave-girls." Bear in mind that Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia, who is here talking about how pure his Arab blood is and how closely he is related to the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS), was very black-skinned.

Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia had a brother named Musa Al-Jawn (the Black). Musa Al-Jawn was also very black-skinned. He was nicknamed Al-Jawn (the Black) because of his blackness. The Sharifs called Banu Al-Akhaidar, who are found in Oman, Saudi Arabia, and other places, are descended from Musa Al-Jawn.

Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia and Musa Al-Jawn had another brother named Yahya the Possessor of Daylum. Yahya, too, was described as black-skinned. Mohamed Al-Nafs Al-Zakia, Musa Al-Jawn and Yahya the Possessor of Daylum were all the brothers of Idriss the 1st, the father of the Idrissi Sharifs and the founder of the city of Fes in Morocco.

Nineth century poet Abu Al-Hasan Ali ibn Al-Abbas ibn Jurayj, known as Ibn Al-Rumi, wrote a long poem to the Abbasids blaming them for the way that they treated the family of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS). It should be understood that at that time, the Abbasids had become very mixed with the Romans, Greeks, and Persians. Here is part of what Ibn Al-Rumi said in his famous poem called Al-Jeemia:

"You insulted them (the family of the Prophet Mohamed) because of their blackness while there are still pure-blooded black-skinned Arabs. However, you are blue (eyed) - the Romans have embellished your faces with their color."

There you have it. These are the ancestors of the Sharifs or the Sayyids - the family of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) and as you have seen, they were all dark-skinned people. The question that remains to be answered is this - why aren't the masses aware of this fact?

28 comments:

Salamualaikum Habibi what are you talking about ?How can i do to join you...i am a cameroonian and i live in Dubai.I want to know more about all this...Why nobody want to tell the truth abt this ? malik.mandjombe@gmail.com

In the days of Mohammed and the Roman colonisation’s of Palestine, NorthArabia and Africa, the term Arab was much more than a nationality. Itspecifically referred to peoples whose appearance, customs and languagewere the same as the nomadic peoples on the African side of the Red Sea. In fact, the term included the populations of the Red Sea in Africa. Some now think that the word Arab is a word literally meaning nomad, although the word has never been used to refer exclusively to nomads.

According to ancient Southern Arabian inscriptions the word Araab or Arrabi, was a name of the Himyarite tribes of the Yemen in the Bab el Mandeb area.

Before the spread of Islam, there lived in the deserts of the ArabianPeninsula, Northern Syria, Iraq and Hadramaut, nomads who were nearly as “black’’ as the Moors they later conquered and converted to Islam.

Because the word Mauri had come to signify a man of black or nearly black complexion, the Arab who invaded Northern Africa came also to be referred to as “Moorish.” These lesser-modified occupants of Arabia were and aredescribed in Arabic as “akhdar” or “black”.

This word originally signified that which is like the colour of a type of iron which was greenish black. Thus, such things that are black or very dark like iron, or like the night, are often described in early Arab writings as “akhdar” which literally means “green” but signifies something black. The peoples of Chad, until the Europeans colonised the area sang of Tunis, the “akhdar” in memory of the presence of the dark Complexioned Arabs who once ruled there.

According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman general of the 4th century A.D.,the Bedouin populations of southern Syria and the Arabian peninsula, whom the Romans called Saracens (derived from Sarah or Sahra meaning desertnomads), were peoples “whose primary origin was derived from the cataracts of the Nile on the borders of the Blemmyes.”

The Blemmyes or Bedja are a people located then and now in the deserts east of the Nile in Sudan.

They rode on camels and like the Moors were particularly notorious for their hit and run raids from the desert fringes. They were lightly clad, dressed in tunics only to the waist, and were experts at pillaging for which reason Ammianus claimed they were “not good to have as, friend or foe.”

A stratum of peoples of relatively recent African origin extended into Asia.

The evidence of linguistics, archaeology, physical remains and ethnohistory support the observations and descriptions we find in the histories of the Greeks and Romans and in later Iranian documents about the nomadic Arabians of that early era. The Arabs were the direct progeny and kinsmen of the dark brown, gracile and kinky haired “Ethiopic peoples that firstspread over the desert areas of Nubia and Egypt.

Before the middle of the 2nd millennium they were located along the Mediterranean coast in Turkey, Europe and the Arabian Peninsula. In their least modified form they may be found now settled in the Horn of Africa, the southern Sahara and remote parts of Arabia.

These people spoke languages belonging to a group that linguists now call Eritrean or AfroAsiatic (formerly called “hamito Semitic”).

The dialects are spoken predominantly in the Horn of Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. They include the dialects called Cushitic, Omotic,Ethiopic or Ethio-Semitic. The latter grouping is descended from ancient dialects of Arabia, which in turn have their roots in Africa.

In North Africa the dialects include the Berber and Arabic (which is a late comer to Africa and the last evolved of the African Asiatic dialects). They also include the ancient Semitic dialects of Syria and Mesopotamia as well as the language of ancient Egypt, which some scholars considered to be “protoSemitic.”

The early Semitic dialects include those called Akkadian, Amorite, Armenian, Canaanite, Hebrew and South Arabic. Other North Syrian peoples indigenous to Asia, however, also adopted the language of the original Semitic speakers.

These latter seem to have been predominantly fairskinned; broad headed, prominent nosed people who came to predominate in Northern Syria, Northern Armenia and Mesopotamia, especially those populations of the areas anciently called Assyria and Elam.

They were in custom and origin much different from the people of the desert, who could claim an African origin when the Romans fought them in Syria and Arabia centuries after Christ.

Some of the most prominent linguists today have suggested that the Semitic languages and culture originated in Ethiopia and spread from there to South West Asia.’

It was long ago pointed out that Egyptian seemed to be a proto-Semitic dialect and that the Cushitic languages of the area of Sudan and Ethiopia possessed the seeds for the Semitic dialects. And although modern Ethiopian Semitic dialects seem to be descended from those of theAbyssinian, Sabaean and Himyaritic immigrants who colonised parts of Ethiopia and Somalia, about 500 BC, recent studies show that Semiticlanguages have been spoken in Ethiopia for at least four thousand years.

Rock art and the stone or lithic industry of the Rub al Khalil or Empty Quarter (Central desert in Saudi Arabia) seem to point also to Somalia and the Horn of Africa as the area from which a wave of sheepherding people emigrated to Arabia during the period between 5,000 and 4,000 B.C.

The people portrayed in this art have been described by Emmanuel Anati, an archaeological specialist, who has written on the drawing, as “Negroid.”

The extent of this rock art however, stretched to the Persian Gulf area in the west and to the Asia region areas along the Red Sea south of Mecca in the East, and has some affiliation with certain early cultures of Mesopotamia.The art also shows some elements of similarity with rock art of the Chalcolithic period in the south Syrian desert and the Gerzean paintings inSouthern Egypt.

One early specialist in Egyptian rock art and glyphs suggested they were essentially the same as the art of peoples dwelling in the hills and deserts East of the Nile.’

Similar depictions of dark skinned men and other elements reminiscent of the early predynastic Egyptian culture, appear in the Jebel Kara area, where several of the tribes still resemble the peoples of the Nubian desert called Bedja as well as other Cushitic and Ethiopic speaking peoples in Ethiopia,Sudan and Eritrea.

The Sahara or Sahra whose name was made famous through the story of Sha’razad, still live in Jebel Kara and the hills of Dthufar in Oman. These Afro Semitic people, according to Sir Richard Burton the famous “Orientalist”explorer, are a people with low brows and black skins, with frail and slender frames.

According to Bertram Thomas these people, who speak some of the oldest living Arab dialects, resemble the Kushites called Bedja, now living in the deserts east of the Nile in Sudan and Ethiopia. Such people appear in isolation further to the North of the peninsula as well as in Iran where they apparently called themselves Lam.

The men in the Arabian rock art wore small beards like those in Sahara rock art. They also wore headdresses and used throwing sticks. The ostrich, the shield, the staff and the phallus are often portrayed. These were apparentlysacred symbols, which often have totemic significance today among pastoral people in Africa especially in the Sahel and Cushitic areas. They carried on ceremonies, associated with the ox and the phallus. They practiced mockbattle similar to that of the Cushitic and the Nilo-Saharan peoples of east Africa. The men portrayed in the art of the Arabian Desert, in fact, bear great resemblance to the slender and lightly bearded nomads, which appeared in the same epoch in the Sahara.

G. Elliot Smith, who early recognised the ancient prevalence of the “Nubian” or “Abyssinian” type of man in the Near and Middle East which he named the“brown race” was a specialist in physical anthropology and had studied the osteological remains of the Middle East and Africa. Smith asserted that there was good reason to believe that the early inhabitants of Arabia andsouthern Syria were essentially the same, osteologically speaking, as the A group population of Nubia.

He was also adamant about his belief that the modern Cushitic speakers of Ethiopia and the early inhabitants of ancient Egypt were genetically related.”

Though still inhabiting the southern deserts and some of the mountainous areas of Oman, these slender “dark brown” pastoral tribes are not very numerous in Arabia today. It is thissmall, African type that Kramer, the founder of Sumerian studies, talked about when he spoke of the “brown” man that occupied Sumer.

In Jebel Djezan, in modern day Saudi Arabia people indistinguishable from modern Eritreans live. The houses they build are also similar to those found in Eritrea.

In modern day Yemen live the Murad, mentioned as a Himyarite tribe in early inscriptions. Several other tribes of this ancient AfroSemitic stock-still dwell in the desert and coastal areas of the peninsula.

Their customs in many cases are like those of the Abyssinians.

Such types in Arabia are represented in tribes like the Harb who dwell North of Mecca.

Not long ago Sir Richard Francis Burton in his travels to Arabia met men from the Harb tribe, who were the ruling clan of the Hejaz.

He describes them in the personal narrative of his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, as having attenuated limbs, a “chocolate brown” complexion and“bushy hair” with “screaming voices.”

He called them the ruling clan of the Hejaz area, which is the area of Mecca, an early Muslim town.

The Harb, who dwelt in the Northern Hejaz when visited by explorer Burton,are by tradition the descendants of the Ghassan or Assanite Saracensdescribed by Roman writers like Ammianus Marcellinus.

The Hamida, the largest clan of the Harb, are mentioned in ancient South Arabic inscriptions. Hamida are also found in modern Sudan.

The Beni Harb, according to Arab genealogy, were also related to those Arabs that invaded North Africa in the llth century called Qays, Aileen, Banu Suleman and Hilalieen.

Thus it was that a few centuries after Ammianus Marcellinus wrote, men of this sort proclaiming themselves followers of Mohammed left the Arabian peninsula, the area of the Hejaz and Yemen, lands which they had inhabitedfor some 4,000 years.

They invaded the countries to the North and North East of them, turning the speech of those lands to the speech that is called Arab, and the culture of those lands in part to the AfroSemitic culture.

Ever since then most Muslims who speak the language of the “akhdar” Mohammedans, have been referred to as Arab.In the 1500s, Jews called Anaiza lived in the hills of Khaibar (ancient capital of Judaism in Arabia). They are now found in both North and South Arabia and were described by an Italian explorer as “black, though some are blacker than others,” with voices like women.

The early desert populations of Arabia and Africa were for the most part derived from Africans, who seem to have undergone a specialised physical development having evolved in hot, dry regions in, the late Stone Age.

Many of the Eritrean looking men of Arabia and those in Africa inappropriately named “hamites” by European academia are often found, in areas where Temperatures soar,above 120 degrees. They tend to be very slender with gracile bones and attenuated limbs skin, though dark brown or black Brown, tends to have a strong reddish hue which is thought,also to be due to the ecological pressures of the environment in pentaganoid shaped faces are common.

Narrow noses and little or no Prognathism, are typical and associated with the modified aspect of their facial and cranial morphology. Thesecharacteristics, once presumed to be a legacy of a non Negroid or Caucasoid intermixture, are now attributed, by some population biologists and geneticists, to the ancient adaptation of Africoids to certain specific, ecological factors including the change to the Neolithic diet in combination with dwelling in exceedingly hot, dry habitats.

Thus the indigenous or “black” tribes of Arabia were those who in ancient times emigrated from Africa during the Neolithic era, approximately four to five thousand BC., and were the earliest purveyors and disperses of the Semitic dialects especially of the early Semitic which prevailed in the area of Syria and Mesopotamia as well.

This is to say, the “Saracens” that Ammianus Marcellinus saw were dwelling in Arabia for at least three to four thousand years before he encountered them. They were not only familiar with the desert but had been involved in the creation of some of the earliest so-called “Semitic” civilisations.

Some like the Thamudenioi or Temaii are mentioned as desert dwellers in Assyrian texts of the 7th century BC. They are mentioned along with a tribe called Sabaai, who were in fact the Sabaeans of southern Arabia and Masaai who were perhaps the Macae Saracens of Mesopotamia mentioned by the Romans of centuries later.

Their cattle and camels were “without number.” The Agareni or Hagar whom Ammianus, St. Jerome and others spoke of, were probably the same tribe mentioned thousands of years earlier in an inscription of the Persian Gulf area on an island called Dilmun.

There were those of the Saracens who had emigrated North from the southern parts of Arabia after some ecological catastrophe had caused the breaking of the dam in the Sabaean civilisation.

Such people were the Assanites or the “akhdar” Ghassanids and Lihyanites of early texts. Others like the Nabataeans of Petra were in fact known as Amorites until a late period.

By Arabic historical tradition they were descendants of Nimrod and Kush who were said to have come to Jordan after having left the ‘Chatt el Arab’ area of present day Iraq or what was then known as Babylon.

It must be said here that early Greeks and Romans did not usually distinguish ethnically between the people called Saracens and the inhabitants of southern Arabia (the Yemen) which was called India Minor or Little India in those days, nor southern Arabians from the inhabitants of the Horn of Africa. What differences there were between them were more cultural and environmental than anything else.

Strabo, around the Ist century BC, Philostratus and other writers, speak of the area east of the Nile in Africa as “Arabia” and the people are persistently and indiscriminately and sometimes simultaneously referred to as either Arabs, Indians or Ethiopians, just as native Americans in Central and North America are characteristically grouped under a single term as “Indians.”

Strabo even went so far as to say that the peoples called “Troglodytes” the indigenous of the ancient Horn should not be called “Ethiopians” as they were really “Arabs.”

Although the ancients were aware of the movement of peoples like the Habeshan (Beshmat) and Sabaeans from the Arabian peninsula to the Horn a few centuries before the Christian era (a movement fairly well documentedby archaeologists).

It is clear from the ancient writings on the “Arabs” that the peoples of the Arabian peninsula and the non-immigrant, indigenous nomads Of the Horn were considered ethnically one and the same and thought to have originated in areas near the cataracts of the Nile.

Trogodytes (Bedja) were said to have lived on both sides of the Red Sea.

Several southern Arab peoples like the Himyarites of Yemen who are sometimes referred to as Ethiopians and the Maddenioi or Madiei of the Hejaz Asir, were considered Saracens by Procopius.

Such people had strong commercial ties with Africa through the Red Sea trade.

It is hard to imagine that the people on the Arabian coast on the western side of the Red sea called in ancient inscriptions Madiei, were not in some way related to those men called in ancient times Madjai or Madjayu (the Egyptologists’ rendering of the name) on the eastern or African side of the Red Sea.

The Madjai are mentioned before 2,000 BC and appear as late as Roman times in Egyptian texts as truculent desert nomads.

They are presently considered to be ancestral to modern Bedja or Kushites. The latter (Madjai) carried on a great caravan trade with Egypt as late as the days of the Romans and the former (Madiei) were considered incense traders.

According to Josephus, Cleodemus and later writers, a Madan gave birth to the founders of tribes called Afran or Afra, and Abida and Havila, Ludadas and Raama whose descendants crossed over into Libya.

In fact, these could be none other than the Abida, Afren, sons of Midian of Genesis fame. Josephus makes Madan, the brother of Midian, father of the two tribes.

According to later traditions, Afra also known as Ifrikus or Fariq crossed over the Nile and conquered the indigenous of North Africa, founding many tribes of Berbers and naming Africa. Interestingly enough, the tribe of Abida inhabits the south Arabian area and directly across from Yemen in the Horn of Africa, a Cushitic tribe called Afar dwells in Djibouti and Eritrea.

Avalis or Havila was known as the country of the Troglodytes and is now known as Zeila. It is located in modern Somalia. (More will be said about these traditions and the Troglodytes and the Bedja later.)

The word Berber is utilised to describe present day inhabitants of North Africa who speak a pre Islamic North African dialect. They represent highly amalgamated peoples varying in appearance and morphology. Modern day “Berbers, however modified by racial intermixture, still speak a language related to other indigenous dialects of Northern and Eastern Africa. Their language has been suggested to have some Semitic elements and Indo-European words as well. But while many of the modern day tribes denoted by scholars as “Berbers” have a strong “Caucasoid” element biologically speaking (especially those in the northern regions of North Africa), the ancient Berbers were evidently more African than they were European and as such,were often spoken of as “Ethiopians.”

Zaytoon you have to understand that the descendants of Ham are not the only dark-skinned people and the the area that you call "Africa" is not the only place where dark-skinned people are from. The Arabs are a dark-skinned people and they are descendants of Sam. They are dark-skinned because they are Arab descendants of Sam. They are not Hamitic. The original hebrews, too, were a dark-skinned people and they were dark-skinned because they are Hebrew descendants of Sam.

Since Zaytoon has quoted everything directly from articles I wrote, I thought I would answer. As you already know I do not believe the original "Hamitic" people were different than the historical tribes that are called descendants of Shem or Japhet and Nuah. "Hamitic" is just a term Europeoan anthropologists used for black people in Africa they used to think were Caucasoid speaking dialects that truthfully are not distinguishable from semitic. That is why true academics do not use the term "Hamitic" or even "Semetic" as linguistic terms anymore. The preferred terms are "Afro-San" or "Afro-Asiatic".

The traditions surrounding the Berbers, i.e. Tuareg and similar dark-skinned Berbers, however, is that they were originally from the Yemen and descendants of Ham through Botr (Ithran Genesis 36) and Barane (Aran Genesis 37), Jalid or Jalout (Goliath), Mashikh (Mazigh) and Ifrikesh who were all descendants Canaan in both Arabian and Berber tradition or (Philistim were a remnant of th Anakim of Canaan).

It is evident that at some point in time the term Himyar or Humayr came to signify Ham as Himyar's son's are called Misra or Masra and Kuta'a or Kudha'a. The latter is called Kuth the son of Ham in Ethiopian genealogy and by Josephus is called Kaath or Kohath "a Levite". In other words there is every reason to believe that Ham, Shem and Japhet branched off from one another sometime in the last 4000 years somewhere in the original land of Canaani which was the Yemen and southern Hejaz(according to Arab tradition).See the Bible came from Arabia by Kamal Salibi.

The Arabs also didn't distinguish Japhet from Shem and Ham. Hamdani (10th c.?) calls the inhabitants of Sudan the descendants of Japhet.

Salam Tarik the article agrees with the Semetic tribes being dark skinned...what i don't believe in though is that Ham Shem anf Japhet were threee SEPERATE races of people....all the people prior to Noah were dark skinned so he could not have just produced three distinct ethnicities

It's not Sam, Ham, and Japheth who are three different ethnicities, but it's their descendants who formed different ethnicities. Like the case of Ismail and Ishaq (AS)the sons of Ibrahim (AS). The descendants of Ismail (AS) are Arabs and the descendants of Ishaq (AS) are Hebrews.

In Hebrew and Western tradition the Hebrews get their name from Heber or Eber father of Joktan and Peleg. This is Abir father of Qahtan and Faligh in Southern Arabia. El Tabari thus refers to Arabian tribe of Djurham - as one example - as Djurham bin Peleg. The Arabic historians said theat Djurham was the same as Hadoram son of Shem. The Qain'an (Cainan), Mahl or Mahli (Mahal'ileel) and Hanaish or Nahish (Enosh) direct descendants of Noah and Seth (in the book of Genesis) are still tribes among the Dawasir (al-Azd from the Zahran) and Mahra (Qudha'a of the Himyarites) people of Central and Southern Arabia. This proves that the Bible indeed and the people of the Hebrew Genesis as written by "the people of the book" were intimately familiar with the tribes of southern Arabia. According to Kamal Salibi in the Bible Came from Arabia, even the first paragraphs of the Hebrew Old Testament mention Tihamah which he says was wrongly translated as "the deep" by people not understanding semitic dialects. Darkness was on the face of Tehom or the Tehama, and not 'the deep'.

Hazrat Imam Baqir (radi Allahu anhu) is the fifth Imam and Sheikh of the Silsila Aaliyah Qaaderiyah Barakaatiyah Razviyah Nooriyah. He is a descendant of the Prophet (salla laahu alaihi wasallam) and his nasl if from Hazrat Ali (radi Allahu anhu). He was a great Saahib-e-Karaamat and a personality with vast knowledge of the Hadith. Qazi Abu Yusuf says, “I asked Imam Abu Hanifa (radi Allahu anhu) if he had met Imam Baqir (radi Allahu anhu) and he said, ‘Yes I have met him and I asked a masla (Islamic law) from him. He explained it so beautifully, that never before have I heard anyone explain it in this manner.”

BIRTH: He was born in Madinah Shareef, 3 years before the Battle of Karbala, on the 3rd of Safar 57 Hijri.

NAME: His name is Muhammad. He is also known as Abu Jafar and his titles are Baqir, Saami, Shaakir and Haadi [Masaalikus Saaliqeen vol.1 pg 213]

HIS BIRTH FORETOLD: Hazrat Jaabir (radi Allahu anhu) says, “I was in the blessed court of the Prophet (salla laahu alaihi wasallam) and Imam Hussain (radi Allahu anhu) was in the blessed arms of the Prophet (salla laahu alaihi wasallam). The Prophet (salla laahu alaihi wasallam) said, ‘O Jaabir (radi Allahu anhu)! A son shall be born to him, whose name shall be Ali. He will have a child, whose name shall be Muhammad (Imam Baaqir). O Jaabir! If you meet with him, then you should pass my salaams to him.’”

FEATURES: He was not very tall, tan in complexion and the example of his predecessors, both in looks and character.

this is wayne(rasheed) born muslim just given a english name i want to say what this chap is saying is not true yes some of the ahlu bayt married among the women of africa very nice but this guy is saying Imam Muhammad al Baqir was black actually he was not how are saying rubbish i have seen the Prophet more than 8times PBH Imam Hasan and Husayn each 1 time Zaynal Abideen 2times and Jafar AsSadiq !time none look like black africans!Jafar AsSadiq was olive tanned straight hair oval face!Imam Husayn is olive colored straight nose oval face Imam Hasan looked the most like the ProphetPBH wheat colored nose has a little rise in the middle curly hair not kinky and our Prophet same but wavy hair!PBH

Imam Muhammad is described like this so how did he become black skinnedFEATURES: He was not very tall, tan in complexion and the example of his predecessors, both in looks and character. how does tanned become black

arabs are mixed with many different races! not just african there are arabicized africans those who adopt the language and culture but by blood are not arabs i have seen african sayyids and ones who have arab background they resemble some of the indian muslims from kerala straight hair Imam Muhammad was from Zanal Abideen who was not african black with kinky hair no and Jafar married a berber woman and they look different than the blacks with kinky hair i have seen algerian berber on bbc and have seen a man from bangladesh the features are same and not kinky hair non negroid features many somalians have arab blood they have straight hair and same with some of the ethiopians

semitic people the original ones from joktan are fair to dusky colored my granddads are both from iraq my moms side has curly hair with a dusky color and my dads side is very fair with rosy color the guy who is writing these thins has he ever been to the middle east or google imaged arab people arabs have mixed with many races and being so close to egypt and east africa of coarse there is a afro arabian people but when the arabs mix with the africans the features do change especially if they continue to marry into the arab people!

He was the image of his grandfather Sayyiduna Ali (Radi ALLAHu Ta'ala Anho). He was tan in complexion and not very tall. He had a full beard on which he used henna (mehndi).imam ali was not black?!!!!!!!!

Wayne is an idiot. He dares to dispute authoritative books that date back over a millenia before him. He also dares to make up his own terms when the Arabic is clear on the blackness of the original Arabs. Wayne, do the homework and read up. Find the books and read through lisaanul-Arab it is a FACT, the original Arabs were BLACK. So all of those Arabs you see today even in your family, if they are not black than they are not pure or original Arabs. Case closed. Come out of your denial.

What is the Arabic used in that book, that you say is tan, so both Tariq and I can tell you what it really means. And the original berbers were black. Just like the Arabs they recieved so much immigration in the form of slaves and other immigrants that they are not much lighter than what they used to be. http://www.youtube.com/user/meandwot#p/a/u/1/YHryp9U3Lhw

As a pure blooded descendant of most of the people listed in your article, I would agree with Wayne. Using the term black is misleading as they do not have any african features. Some have dark skinned but not to the level you are proposing. Tan is most apt term.

This is so asinine, promoting this specious pseudo-history of the Arab peoples. This site is nothing less than a bigoted diatribe by a Nation of Islam hate-mongering racist. The DNA testing of the peoples of the Middle East makes this site a bad bad joke. Black people, especially from America, came almost exclusively from West Africa, in any event, and weren't even part of this Islamic experience. Muslim blacks were uncommon to rare amongst the slaves that made the middle passage to the New World. So that makes any black in America even further from the issue of who is who in the Islamic zoo.